Packers hire Brian Gutekunst as general manager

The Green Bay Packers have promoted from within to replace former general manager Ted Thompson in hiring director of player personnel Brian Gutekunst.

It didn’t take all that long for the Green Bay Packers to find Ted Thompson’s replacement as general manager. As expected, Green Bay has promoted from within in hiring former director player of personnel Brian Gutekunst to fill the void left by Thompson’s abdication of the position.

Green Bay usually likes to make its hires in-house, so it should come as no surprise that it would be a guy like Gutekunst to get the general manager job. Gutekunst has been in the Packers organization since the late 1990s first as a scout. He was only recently promoted to director of player personnel in March 2016. Before that, he was Green Bay’s director of college scouting from 2012 to 2015.

Two other names had been linked to replacing Thompson in Green Bay. Former NFL linebacker and Oakland Raiders general manager cut his teeth in scouting in Green Bay under legendary general manager Ron Wolf from 1994 to 2011. Wolf’s son Eliot Wolf was probably the most likely candidate for the job, but it ultimately went to Gutekunst.

Thompson’s end as general manager was marred by an inability to use free agency to better the Packers organization. He had been stringent on building through the NFL Draft. That worked for a while, but with all of Green Bay’s gridiron success during the Mike McCarthy era, the picks weren’t panning out as they had been.

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It’ll be interesting to see what Gutekunst will bring to the table. His background has been in scouting, so expect the Packers to knock out of the park one of the best drafts in years. Green Bay rarely misses the play, but the Packers went 7-9 in 2017. It didn’t help that quarterback Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone midseason against the NFC North division rival Minnesota Vikings.